when i was listening to vinyl it was only to transcribe it onto tape, and i’d use various black boxes to remove clicks and hiss and rumble, dehissers/autocorrelator to suppress hiss, and another box to stereoize mono recordings, and EQs to notch out things like hum and correct for deficiencies in the bandwidth/frequency balance of old recordings, and went so far as to use an old fashioned editing block [razor blade and grease pencil] to physically edit out loud POP!s that made it past the declicker. if a record had tracing distortion, into the trash it'd go. i have gone years before finding a good [not warped/off-center/worn/distorted] replacement for a few of them. i don’t miss those days one iota. digital is as far superior to analog, as analog tape was to edison cylinders.
Digital is far better than vinyl
I have invested a decent sum of money into my digital setup, including a decent streamer (Innuos Zenith MK3), a very good dac (Denafrips Terminator 2), Eno filter, and good cabling. But after being told by many here that vinyl is vastly superior to digital, I thought let’s build an analog system and see what all the fuss is about. So this is what I did ...
I picked up an Audio Technica TT from Amazon for around $299. I then used one of the older integrated amps with a built-in phono, which I believe I paid around $500 a few years ago. And, finally, just to even out the playing field I bought the cheapest possible cables from alibaba. Since I didn’t have extra rack space to put the TT on, I got a couple of bricks and built a DIY platform for it.
So after listening to the analog setup for a few days, I can proclaim without a shadow of doubt that digital is far, far superior than vinyl on any given day, and twice a day on Sunday.
What has been your experience? And please, don’t mention your gear or any special. cartridges, isolation, etc. Not interested in your system details. I just want to make sure you guys understand that digital is far, far superior than vinyl.